Community Journal: High school robotics team strives for success

On October 3-4, Woodside High School hosted 38 local teams in the annual off-season FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). FIRST promotes robotics and engineering in schools around the world. The organization allows students in elementary school, middle school, and high school, as well as adults, to compete in robotics at levels from local to international.

Alameda’s ASTI Aztechs, Team 4186, participated in the competition’s high school division. At kickoff each January the division announces the year’s challenge, and teams have six weeks to decide upon a strategy, build a robot, and program it. Aerial Assist, 2014’s challenge, involved a robot with a maximum height of 5 feet and maximum frame perimeter of 121 inches working in alliance with two other teams’ robots against another alliance of three robots. From positions off the field, drivers control their robots and try to score in the other team’s goal, much like soccer.

At the end of six weeks, the Aztechs bagged and tagged their robot for its first competition, the Silicon Valley regionals, in a field of 50-plus teams. But their dreams crashed and burned: During the competition everything seemed to go wrong and break.

After the disappointment of regionals, the team helped out with several community service projects, created a float for the Alameda Fourth of July parade and set up a booth at Everything Alameda, all the while waiting for redemption at the off-season Cal Games.

Six weeks before Cal Games the Aztechs regrouped; with their previous failure in mind, they knew something had to change. Meeting every Saturday, they completely changed their strategy and built a new robot from the frame up. The new strategy focused on being a complementary robot, designed to support and function well in any alliance.

On October 3, the Aztechs and their new robot were off to the competition.

“We were pretty confident that the robot would function well at Cal Games,” team member Pheobe Yeung said. “We had spent a whole day at Everything Alameda testing it. But still I was nerves, during every match we played I had my fingers crossed the whole time.”

The Aztecs played nine matches in the qualifying rounds. At the end of qualifiers, the top eight teams asked two other teams to join them in an alliance. The Aztechs were asked to join an alliance with team 604 and 114. Team captain Mercedes Thorne graciously accepted.

“When we got selected for the championship round I was so excited!” Thorne said. “After all, that was our goal for this competition. We built a robot that would complement other teams strategies. We were a perfect fit for our alliance.”

In quarterfinals, teams played best out of three. With some great strategizing, precise execution, and all-around outstanding teamwork, the alliance swept through quarterfinals. In semifinals they faced an alliance that included the team that won Silicon Valley regionals. In the first match, the score was 186-181: The Aztechs’ alliance needed just five more points to win. But in the second match one of the alliance robots overheated, and with only two functioning robots on the field the Aztechs’ alliance was eliminated.

The Aztechs fulfilled their strategy and tasted success. Heading into their fourth year of competition, their roster of 34 active members is steadily growing. Last year a NASA grant funded a majority of the Aztechs’ program. That grant is no longer available and the team is searching for new sponsorship.

The Aztechs need Alameda’s support. You can directly contact them at astiaztechsfrc4186@gmail.com or visit them on their Facebook page: FIRST FRC Team 4186 – The Aztechs. Donations of any amount are greatly appreciated.